Does anybody here have the details or web site links on a hijacking that occured in 1993 involving an LH a/c from FRA-CAI (Cairo, Egypt?). Apparently, the plane somehow ended up at JFK, and the event lasted 11 hours.

I am reading the "9/11 Commision Report" and the above hijacking was noted, but with out any more details than what I just listed above.

As far as I remember the Captain made a deal with the single hijacker that they would exchange his hat with the weapon upon landing in NYC. I saw the Captain in a talkshow talking about this hijacking. The way he talked about it, it sounded more than a funny situation although it was serious for sure.

The aircraft was an A310-300 regn DAIDM and the hijacking took place on 11FEB93. Original flight route was Frankfurt-Cairo-Addis Ababa. An intermedate stop was made at Hanover during the hijack and as stated above, the airplane ended up in JFK.

It turned out that the guy had a stun gun in his hat... the pilots had described him as a well educated man, who struck up good conversations with them. IIRC, he was being deported from Germany back to Ethiopia. I also recently read somewhere that he, while in prison (incarcerated until 2011 I think), attempted to commit suicide and is now half paralyzed.

from CNN, 14.3.1996, QUOTE:
Ethiopian convicted for hijacking plane to U.S.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- An Ethiopian national who hijacked a Lufthansa plane from Frankfurt, Germany, to the United States in 1993 was found guilty Thursday by a federal jury in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

After 22 minutes of deliberations, the jury found Nebiu Demeke guilty of aircraft piracy. He used a starter pistol to force a pilot to steer a plane to New York's JFK airport.

Demeke, 23, represented himself in the three-day trial but was aided by a court-assigned co-counsel. He explained that an intense desire to come to United States to be an artist and filmmaker prompted him to hijack the plane.

Demeke could receive 20 years to life imprisonment. His sentencing is scheduled for May 24.
UNQUOTE

A book called Flights of Terror by David Gero, (1997) ISBN 1 85260 512X covers all hijackings since the 1930's.

Surprisingly most ended without loss of life, also there have been a number of aircraft where there has been gunfire or explosions at altitude and the aircraft has been landed safely. Anyone who watched "Goldfinger" please note.

Incidentally, one of the largest losses of life in a hijacking pre 9/11 was on 24 November 1985 when Egypt stormed B737-266 SU-AYH at Luqa Airport, Malta.
A total of 62 people were killed, if this had been tried at altitude there would have been no survivors.That plane carried 4 guards.

It is important to know when to talk and when to shoot. We can not simply assume that all hijackers are suicide bombers. Also given that each plane on 9/11 had 4-5 hijackers, it is hard to see that Marshalls could have resolved the situation without a firefight. In that situation, the best that could reasonably be hoped for is a big hole in a field. In all probability, the Marshalls would have been overwhelmed on at least one flight.

Coming back to the question;

11 February 1993

a Lufthansa German Airlines A310 wide-bodied jet, operating a Flight 592 en route to Frankfurt, Germany to Cairo, Egypt, was hijacked by a sole assailant armed with a starter's pistol. The aircraft completed a transatlantic journey and ultimately landed at Kennedy Airport, New York City, where the hijacker surrendered. He was later given a prison sentence of 20 Years by a US Federal Court Judge.